Peter F. Schadler, D.Phil (2011), University of Oxford, is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Dickinson College. He has published articles on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Relations, early Christian Hagiographical Methodology, and early Christian conceptions of Conciliar Authority in the Eastern Roman Empire and Near East.

Presentation

How did Islam come to be considered a Christian heresy ? In this book, Peter Schadler outlines the intellectual background of the Christian Near East that led John, a Christian serving in the court of the caliph in Damascus, to categorize Islam as a heresy. Schadler shows that different uses of the term heresy persisted among Christians, and then demonstrates that John’s assessment of the beliefs and practices of Muslims has been mistakenly dismissed on assumptions he was highly biased. The practices and beliefs John ascribes to Islam have analogues in the Islamic tradition, proving that John may well represent an accurate picture of Islam as he knew it in the seventh and eighth centuries in Syria and Palestine.

Table des matières

AcknowledgmentsAbbreviations

Introduction

1 Heresy and Heresiology in Late Antiquity Problems in Associating Islam with Heresy Manichaeism : The Exception that Proves the Rule Heresy as Opposition to the Church Other Understandings of Heresy in Late Antiquity Early Christian Use of Heresiology The Demonic Nature of Heresy Heresy as the Result of Philosophical Speculation Other Typical Traits of Heresiology

2 Aspects of the Intellectual Background The Encyclopedism of Christian Palestine Heresiology as History ? The Sociological Imperative to Institution Building as a Force for Islam’s Inclusion From Heresiology to Panarion and from Panarion to Anacephalaeosis : The Shifting Nature of Heresiology John of Damascus and non-Christian Philosophy The Definition of Heresy in John’s Works Demons and the Heresiology of John

3 The Life of John of Damascus, His Use of the Qurʾan, and the Quality of His Knowledge of Islam The Life of John of Damascus John of Damascus and Arabic The Qurʾan and its Apparent Use Among Christians John of Damascus and the Qurʾan Anastasius of Sinai and the Qurʾan The Alleged Leo-Umar Correspondence Lives of the Prophets and Other Sources

4 Islamic and Para-Islamic Traditions Scholarly Accounts of Early Islam Revisionist Islamic Studies and its Antecedents Contemporary Islamic Studies John of Damascus, the Black Stone, and the Ka’ba The Ka’ba, the Black Stone, and the Maqām Ibrāhīm in the Islamic Tradition An Untraditional Perspective The Damascene’s Observations Given the Untraditional Perspective Rivers in Paradise The Monk and an-Nasara Female Circumcision Pillars of Faith

5 John of Damascus and Theodore Abu Qurrah on Islam Problems Authenticating Abu Qurrah’s Greek Corpus Theodore Abu Qurrah on Islam Theodore, the Qurʾan, and Muhammad The Arian Monk Theodore and Heresy Theodore and John : Some Differences and Conclusions